Trail Meal | Instant Potato and Leek soup

Another trail meal that I enjoy cooking while out on trial. This time its Potatoes and Leek soup! Instant of course to make it as simple as possible for yourself while hiking.

The ingredients for this trail meal are as follows.

• Dried leeks (1 cup)
• Dried Onions (halve a cup)
• Instant mashed potatoes (1/3 cup)
• Herbs and spices you like
• Bouillon cube
• Two cups of water
• Optional -> Some kind of meat

The gear you need for cooking out on trail:

• Mess kit – I carry my Esbit cook kit for this.
• Tea towel for cleanup
• Spork
• Pocket knife 
• Gas stove , alcohol stove or any kind of heat source really.
• Sea to Summit X Cup

Whenever I see leeks out on sale or I can get them cheap while in season I grab a bunch to eat during the week and to dehydrate for out on trail. Like virtually any dried vegetable when stored airtight they will last for a few years. So a lot longer then fresh ones. And a lot less weight.

I prepared the dried onions and leeks in advance, you can also get them pre bought if you prefer.

Preparing the leeks and onions

You can skip this step if you buy it from a store.

Cut the leeks lengthwise and get rid of the root and top, clean them because they always have dirt in them between the leaves. After that cut them in small slices and spread these slices out for faster and better dehydrating.

Do the same with the onions and spread them out on your dehydrator.

Turn the dehydrator on, I put it on the second heat setting, and go do something else. Dehydrating takes a while to finish. In a couple of hours or however long it takes you will get the following result:

That you can store in a Ziploc bag and portion up for any trail needs as you go.

All packed up and ready to store or hit the trail with. For convenience sake you can put the instant mashed potatoes in there as well. And of course the bouillon cube and the other herbs and spices you want to put in there. Dried sage is another great herb to have on hand for this.

Preparing the Leek, Onion and instant Potato soup out on trail

Like most outdoor trail meal the food you cook is fast and easy to prepare. The same goes for this recipe. All you really need to do is boil water and wait for a few minutes. But here are all the necessary steps.

Step 1 > Put 2 cups of cold water in your pot. Add in the cup Dried leeks, 1/2 Cup of Onions and Bouillon cube.

Step 2 > Wait for it to boil and add in 1/3 cup of Instant Potato mixture.

Step 3 > Let simmer for a minute or two while stirring.

Step 4 > Remove or kill the heat, Add in the spices or herbs and cover with lid. Let sit a few minutes before digging in.

And that is all there is to it. If you want to add meat or another form of protein you can add those with the mashed Potato mixture. Be careful to adhere to the measurements or else you end up with a Stamppot! Also good though. 1 Pouch of instant potato mix lasts me for 3 soup meals this way.

If you have any suggestions about putting more stuff in please let me know down in the comments!

Happy hiking and hike for purpose!